SLQS Gallery

We’re excited to announce the selected artists and poets for Refractions, an evening of poetry reflecting on how identity is shaped through culture, memory, desire, gender, sexuality, and lived experience. Refractions invites us to think of identity as a prism: shifting and multifaceted, catching different lights through the voices and stories we share. Responding to [insert] the solo exhibition of Pei-Yi Tsai, the event features poets and artists selected by Sarah Le Quang Sang and poet Sophia Al-Adhami alongside open-mic performers. Poetry Evening | Refractions Curated by Sarah Le Quang Sang and Sophia Al-Adhami Sophia Al-Adhami | Jauhara Ali | Victoria Cantons | Heather Harrison | Rowena Hughes | Nympha Ozougwu | Jerrold Yam | thư you 📍 SLQS Gallery, 20 Club Row, London E2 7EY 📅 19 May 2026 ⏰ 6:30–8:30pm 🔗 Book Tickets in link in bio There is a limited capacity so be quick to book your ticket! Readings will start promptly at 7pm. Please note that SLQS Gallery is located on the second floor and is only accessible via stairs. Drinks provided by @madamef_wine #SQLSGallery #Refractions #Poetryevening #[insert]

SLQS Gallery in The Art Newspaper today! Thank you to @annabrady100 for this brilliant article spotlighting my intentions to create more space for women and queer artists, starting our programme with @pollypenrosephotography @mia__wilkinson @dygravina @ingridberthonmoine @kate_williams_studio @bexwade @hdclerget @duonguyen.thuy @damaris.athene and Vicky Do. Please join us for our opening next Thursday 13th February with the exhibition ‘felt, expressed, chosen’ Portrait image shot by @eliotgelberg with Sarah Le Quang Sang standing in front of ‘Latent_Space.003’ by @damaris.athene link in our bio for full article @theartnewspaper.official #slqsgallery #womenartists #queerartists #shoreditch

Thank you @culturalee for the brilliant review of [insert] by Pei-Yi Tsai curated by Senem Cagla Bilgin-Keys. Last chance to view this exhibition, it’s on until next Saturday 23 May only! “Tsai’s draughtsmanship is especially striking. There is a precision reminiscent of Jean‑Auguste‑Dominique Ingres in the clarity of contour and anatomical control, yet Tsai’s line also carries traces of Taiwanese visual traditions. Fine black contours and intricate detailing evoke something almost calligraphic, allowing her Taiwanese heritage to subtly permeate the paintings without reducing them to cultural signifiers. Bilgin-Keys has remarked that the strength of Tsai’s work lies in “the tension between what is revealed and what is withheld,” and this exhibition succeeds precisely because it never seeks easy resolution. Instead, Tsai constructs a visual language in which identity remains contingent, fractured, and emotionally charged. Through exquisitely rendered surfaces and psychologically complex compositions, [Insert] positions the body as a site where private memory and broader cultural histories converge. The result is a deeply affecting exhibition that confirms Pei-Yi Tsai as an important emerging voice in contemporary figurative painting.” Full Article in link in bio Pei-Yi Tsai | [insert] Curated by Senem Cagla Bilgin-Keys On view until 23 May 2026 20 Club Row, London E2 7EY We are open Thursday-Saturday 12-6pm and by appointment. #Culturalee #SLQSGallery #[insert] #PeiYiTsai #SenemCaglaBilginKeys

‘From 2024 to early 2026, I primarily used a type of cotton fabric called calico as the painting ground. Due to its lightweight quality and relatively loose fibers, paint and gesso can easily penetrate the surface. I usually stretch or pin the fabric directly onto the wall to apply gesso, and once it dries, I remove it. This process causes the surface to wrinkle, resulting in a fragile and unstable texture resembling crumpled cotton paper. For me, this kind of material—susceptible to change, marked by traces and deformation—corresponds to the nature of memory. Memory is not something fixed, but rather something that is continuously overwritten, faded, and reconstructed. In this sense, the fragility and instability of the material also echo my ongoing interest in the fluidity and uncertainty of identity.’ Pei-Yi Tsai in conversation with Culturalee (link in bio to read full article) Pei-Yi Tsai Sealed memories (2025) Oil & Acrylic on calico 132 x 105 cm Pei-Yi Tsai Hushed (2025) Oil on calico 40x40 cm All works are available to collect, please email [email protected] for more information Pei-Yi Tsai | [insert] Curated by Senem Cagla Bilgin-Keys 24 April - 23 May 2026 20 Club Row, London E2 7EY We are open Thursday-Saturday 12-6pm and by appointment Installation Image by Rita Silva #SLQSGallery #[insert] #PeiYiTsai #SenemCaglaBilginKeys

We’re proud to be part of Backyard Biennial: East, a free, 8-week festival in collaboration with Whitechapel Gallery and 40+ local partners across East London (15 July - 6 September 2026). Join us for an exciting programme of exhibitions, performances, workshops and more, celebrating the histories, communities and creative practices that shape the East End. On 10 July 2026, SLQS Gallery opens the group exhibition No Place Like Home III curated by Hoa Dung Clerget and KV Duong and featuring works by Hoa Dung Clerget, KV Duong, Moi Tran, Alvin Lương, Hiền Hoàng and Nguyễn Thuỷ Tiên. The third part in this series of exhibitions centres around an interior garden as a place of exchange. No Place Like Home is a collective exploration of home, focusing on the Vietnamese diasporic house as an intimate, cultural, and political space. In addition to a traditional exhibition, the project centres on workshops, gatherings, and discussions, inviting the public and local communities to reflect and share experiences. The exhibition is supported by SLQS Gallery, Whitechapel Gallery, the Vietnam Art Collection (VAC) and the Circles of Art. More information is coming soon! Save the date for the opening: 10 July 2026! Read more via the link in our bio Image: detail of Family Portrait (2026) by KV Duong #BackyardBiennial #EastEnd #NoPlaceLikeHome #VietnameseCommunity

Come to the gallery and view [insert] by Pei-Yi Tsai until 23 May 2026 at 20 Club Row, London E2 7EY. We are open Thursday-Saturday 12-6pm and by appointment. Pei-Yi Tsai Untitled, 2026 Oil on Linen 89 x 45 cm Curated by Senem Cagla Bilgin-Keys. All works are available to collect, please email [email protected] for more information. Installation Image by Rita Silva #SLQSGallery #[insert] #PeiYiTsai #SenemCaglaBilginKeys

“In my new works such as A Storybook Long Forgotten, What Remains Unsaid, and Gazing Toward an Unseen Anchor, the figures appear with an ambiguous or indeterminate sense of gender. I have lived in a similar state, where I was unable to freely express my own gender identity or sexual orientation. In the social context I grew up in, traditional values often imposed relatively fixed and singular expectations of what it means to be “female”—from wearing skirts, to maintaining certain hairstyles, to conforming to a recognizably “feminine” appearance. These implicit norms, to some extent, constrained how I could present myself. As such, these works function both as a form of self-expression and as a subtle form of resistance.” Pei-Yi Tsai in conversation with Culturalee (link in bio to read full article) Pei-Yi Tsai Gazing toward an unseen anchor (2026) Oil on linen 15.5 x 20.5 cm Pei-Yi Tsai A Storybook Long Forgotten (2026) Oil on Linen 100 x 70 cm All works are available to collect, please email [email protected] for more information. Pei-Yi Tsai | [insert] Curated by Senem Cagla Bilgin-Keys 24 April - 23 May 2026 20 Club Row, London E2 7EY We are open Thursday-Saturday 12-6pm and by appointment. Installation Image by Rita Silva #SLQSGallery #[insert] #PeiYiTsai #SenemCaglaBilginKeys

Thank you @londonartcritic at @worldoffad for including [insert] by Pei-Yi Tsai in ‘The Top 5 Exhibitions to see in London in May’ amongst such great company! “A mouth and nose, without the rest of the face visible. A head resting on arms, but we can only see the back of the head. These works are all about identity and also about how we often have to conceal it from those around us. It speaks to the artist’s personal experience as a queer person from Taiwan, as seen in one of her paintings, where the outline of their country is tattooed on the neck.” - Tabish Khan Pei-Yi Tsai | [insert] Curated by Senem Cagla Bilgin-Keys 24 April - 23 May 2026 20 Club Row, London E2 7EY We are open Thursday-Saturday 12-6pm and by appointment. Installation Image by Rita Silva #SLQSGallery #PeiYiTsai #TabishKhan #FADMagazine #artcriticism

““Belonging” for me operates on multiple levels—it relates not only to my connection to my place of origin, but also to my sense of attachment to family. In my work, I often express a sense of longing for my upbringing and cultural environment in a subtle and indirect way. At times, I incorporate specific objects into the paintings, such as Buddhist prayer beads. This object was given to me by my mother as a form of protection, and it carries personal memory while also functioning as a point of connection to a broader sense of cultural and emotional belonging. This cultural experience extends into my practice. While my training is grounded in Western painting materials and techniques, I approach and employ them through an East Asian way of seeing. For instance, I tend to retain a sense of subtlety and restraint within the image, alongside a careful attention to detail and a controlled approach to technique. As a result, even when working within a Western visual language, my work continues to embody an underlying East Asian sensibility and rhythm.” Pei-Yi Tsai in conversation with Culturalee (link in bio to read full article) Pei-Yi Tsai Close in Distance (2026) Oil on Linen 51 x 40 cm All works are available to collect, please email [email protected] for more information. Pei-Yi Tsai | [insert] Curated by Senem Cagla Bilgin-Keys 24 April - 27 May 2026 20 Club Row, London E2 7EY We are open Thursday-Saturday 12-6pm and by appointment. Installation Image by Rita Silva #SLQSGallery #[insert] #PeiYiTsai #SenemCaglaBilginKeys

Meet the poets and artists taking part in Refractions: an evening of poetry reflecting on how identity is shaped through culture, memory, desire, gender, sexuality, and lived experience. ✨Victoria Cantons is an artist who makes work at the intersection of abstraction and figuration and thrives on navigating between genres. She completed her MFA at Slade School of Fine Art (2021), studied drama at the Academy of Live and Recorded Arts (1995–97) and appeared in fringe theatre productions of Wilde, Beckett and Shakespeare. Cantons has exhibited internationally with works held in major collections. Recent solo exhibition at Mimosa House, London, UK (2026); Drawing Biennial, the Drawing Room, London, UK (2026). ✨Nympha Ozougwu is a poet, writer, and literary curator whose work amplifies global conversations on female identity, heritage, resilience, and cultural memory. She is the founder of the Lady Dynamique Network, a platform dedicated to advancing women’s leadership and development through community support, creative education, and cross-cultural exchange. She curated the poetry anthology Lady Dynamique, featuring 90 women from nine countries. ✨Rowena Hughes is a visual artist from London who works in Greece. Alongside her artwork she publishes artist’s books and writes poems. She studied BA Fine Art at Goldsmiths and MFA at the Slade. Exhibitions include Drawing Biennial, the Drawing Room, London, UK (2026); Time Swims in Circles, Anargyrios School, Spetses, Greece (2025); Bookmorphs: Artists’ Books, Hellenic Centre, London, UK (2025). ✨thư you (they/them) is a Hanoian who resides liminally–in their third language English, in their gender assigned at birth, in an ableist society. They aim to challenge and explore beyond their taught binary and given present, as they find it inadequate to fully represent them. They are the co-founder and editor-in-chief of GENCONTROLZ magazine. Poetry Evening | Refractions Curated by Sarah Le Quang Sang and Sophia Al-Adhami 📍 SLQS Gallery, 20 Club Row, London E2 7EY 📅 19 May 2026 ⏰ 6:30–8:30pm ✨ Book Tickets in link in bio #SQLSGallery #Refractions #PoetryEvening #[insert]

Introducing the poets and artists in Refractions: an evening of poetry reflecting on how identity is shaped through culture, memory, desire, gender, sexuality, and lived experience. ✨Sophia Al-Adhami is a writer, poet, speaker and professional strategist. Drawing on her varied professional and creative experience, her work focuses on themes of love, generational memory, diaspora identity, motherhood and the role of politics in shaping familial patterns. Her poetry takes a direct and unflinching look at the human experience through these lenses. ✨Jauhara Ali is a poet who explores themes of identity, and culture within the context of being a neurodivergent woman of colour and mixed heritage. Ali weaves rhythm into poetry turning storytelling into both witness and liberation. Shaped by her lived experience, her work explores identity, gender, cultural hybridity, and the decolonisation of language and thought. ✨Heather Harrison (58¾) is a Scottish Emigrant. After a corporate career in Scotland, Switzerland, Silicon Valley, Staines and Slough, she rediscovered her passion for writing & words with a now-defunct wine blog. She suffers from a chronic invisible illness & has been writing & performing her irreverent and often vulnerable spoken word poems for 3 years. ✨Jerrold Yam is a Singaporean poet based in London and the author of three poetry collections, including Intruder (Ethos Books). In 2024, he won the Cheltenham Poetry Prize and was shortlisted for the Bridport Prize for Poetry, the Magma Poetry Pamphlet Competition and The London Magazine Poetry Prize. Poetry Evening | Refractions Curated by Sarah Le Quang Sang and Sophia Al-Adhami 📍 SLQS Gallery, 20 Club Row, London E2 7EY 📅 19 May 2026 ⏰ 6:30–8:30pm 🔗 Book Tickets in link in bio #SQLSGallery #Refractions #Poetryevening #[insert]

Thank you to everyone who came to the opening of [insert] yesterday. The exhibition is now on view until 23 May. Pei-Yi Tsai | [insert] Curated by Senem Cagla Bilgin-Keys 24 April - 23 May 2026 20 Club Row, London E2 7EY Open Thursday - Saturday 12-6pm and by appointment Installation Images by Rita Silva #SLQSGallery #[insert] #PeiYiTsai #SenemCaglaBilginKeys